crystal violet for cell survival

[vero]

Hi,

I was using someone's technique for staining cell survival with crystal violet (I believe it was 0.5% CV with 40% meOH in PBS), leaving it on for 15 min, rising, drying, solubilizing with citrate sodium and reading at 570 nm.
I was wondering whether this was a valid method of determining cell survival. Also, can someone tell me what CV stains? I've seen some reports of nucleic acid staining for bacteria and some of protein staining in cells and other random ones of staining sebaceous sweat for fingerprint analysis (hmmm).

Thank you!

[excalibur]

Crystal violet is mainly used in the universal Gram stain. It is what stains the bacteria Gram positive. Have you taken a microbiology course?

It can also be modified to stain amyloid. It's dry form can also be used to taint stolen money because it is near impossible to wash off your hands.

I don't know about the fingerprint method, but you can take iodine crystals and place them in a closed container with a piece of paper and the vapors make fingerprints appear.  

[vero]

Dear Excalibur,

Thanks for your reply, I was indeed aware that because of the different membrane composition of Gram + vs Gram -, you can use crystal violet to stain them. I am working on primary cell lines though, so I guess my question is whether you know if it can be used for cell viability in a trustworthy manner, if not, then there's always propidium iodide.

Btw, great "random" piece of information about how to make fingerprints show! Loved it!